Hepburn films

5 Comments

I don't have time for a thorough retrospective. But a few highlights:

  • The Lion in Winter: Superb writing and excellent acting. Breathtakingly vicious. An IMDB review says: "[T]he inimitable Katharine Hepburn portrays Henry's duly banished Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine with all the ... skill and inspired passion imaginable."
  • Guess Who's Coming to Dinner: A bit dated, but still quite good, and well worth watching.
  • Pat and Mike: My favorite of the Tracy/Hepburn movies.
  • Holiday: Not quite as good as the above three, but still very enjoyable. Edward Everett Horton is particularly fun.

I'm afraid I was never as fond of some of the Hepburn standards as most people are. I liked Philadelphia Story (and there are a few really great lines in that), but not as much as the above four. I'm afraid Bringing Up Baby did nothing at all for me (except for Cary Grant flouncing around saying that he felt gay). I thought African Queen was well-made, and that both Hepburn and Bogart did a good job, but it didn't really engage me. Rooster Cogburn was kinda fun, but not great. I found the rest of the Tracy/Hepburn movies I've seen (Woman of the Year, State of the Union, Adam's Rib, Desk Set) enjoyable but flawed (see below). I haven't seen Keeper of the Flame or The Sea of Grass, and I don't think I've seen Without Love; I should probably see if I can dig those up. I also haven't seen Suddenly, Last Summer, Long Day's Journey Into Night, or The Glass Menagerie.

Here's a bit from an email I sent Karen back in 2000:

[Hepburn's] big failing, imo, is that in most of her movies with Spencer Tracy [and a couple without him], she starts out a sassy spitfire, smartmouthed and strongwilled and tough and competent, and then she meets her match and melts and submits, because all she really needed was a strong enough man to take her in hand and ICK! It infuriates me, all the more so because in the beginnings of those movies she's perfect, but then she learns the error of her ways (like in Philadelphia Story—"Now I know that what I needed was to submit and be a real woman" Grr). In one or two [of the Tracy/Hepburn movies]—like Pat and Mike—Tracy meets his match as well, and I like those.

But despite those flaws in some of her movies, she was possibly still my favorite actor. Also one of my favorites to look at. I haven't seen pictures of her lately, but I still thought she was quite attractive at age 85, and when she was in boy-drag for Sylvia Scarlett (a lousy movie, sadly) I found her really extraordinarily attractive. (I have a postcard of a photo from that movie on my refrigerator.)

I also admired her for doing things like (iIrc) inviting striking dockworkers up to her apartment for tea.

I always thought about writing her fan mail, but I didn't think I had anything to say to her that she hadn't heard thousands of times over the years. So I never wrote her. But I'll miss her, silly as that sounds to say about someone I didn't actually know.

The Times obituary closes with a quote from her autobiography, All About Me:

In some ways I've lived my life as a man, made my own decisions. I've been as terrified as the next person, but you've got to keep a-going; you've got to dream.

5 Responses to “Hepburn films”

  1. Rachel Heslin

    I remember doing a report on Katharine Hepburn when I was in junior and being utterly captivated by her. Lion in Winter has always been my favorite.

    reply

  2. David Moles

    Just watched Lion again yesterday; pure coincidence. Absolutely amazing.

    I think all writers of faux-medieval epic fantasy should be tied up and forced to watch it until either they learn to invest their characters with that much complexity and moral ambiguity, or they give up on their choice of genre out of shame.

    (And don’t get me started on the screenwriters.)

    reply

  3. Karen

    Oh, I think Holiday is an underappreciated gem. Keep your eyes on Lew Ayres, playing the brother. He stands out in every scene as though he were acting in a different, much more dark and serious, movie. He’s phenomenal.

    I don’t recall if I ever replied to that letter you wrote, but the only time that stuff really bothered me was in Woman of the Year. In other films, particularly Philadelphia Story, I never felt the message was truly that she needed to submit. I mean, of course there’s problematic stuff in there, power struggles and societal overtones and patronising fathers and phrases like “a real woman” getting chucked around. To my modern eye it’s hard to watch those things without cringing a little, because they ring all the sexism warning bells. Another actress in her role might have read and played it as though a woman’s victory lay in inequality.

    But when Hepburn played it, I felt it came through that what she was looking for was actually a form of equality. Not submission, but to be taken off the pedestal. She didn’t need to struggle to break out of confining gender roles because she seemed to see herself as transcending them naturally. She’s a tough person seeking the personal freedom and honesty to behave like a human being in a relationship with another human being.

    It’s not exactly the “you go girl” approach to female strength we usually see in the movies today, but Hepburn always struck me as someone more interested in being true to herself than in striking a pose or toeing any party line, and that was what made her stronger and more interesting than most people.

    But this is a much longer discussion, and a subtle one, and requires lots of perspective on changing societal trends and attitudes towards gender, and for tonight I’d rather just tip my hat to Kate. Bon voyage.

    reply

  4. Fran

    we saw Sea of Grass some time ago and let me tell you that it may be the single worst movie of her career, including the quite bad “Grace Quigley” and the bad “Man Upstairs”. Not recommended even for completists. On the other hand, “Without Love” is terrific and recommended.

    reply

  5. Jenn Reese

    Ditto Karen regarding Philadelphia Story. I have a problem with her relationship with her father (and that’s my baggage too), but I never felt like she submitted to anything, let alone men. What I did see was a woman hiding her human fraility behind a veneer of perfection. Her willingness to explore herself, even if it means showing signs of weakness, is a strength far greater than her initial caustic wit and intelligence.

    Geez, I could go on forever and not properly relate my feelings for that incredibly complex film. Katherine Hepburn has always been my favorite actress of all time, ever since I saw that film in high school.

    reply

Join the Conversation